North Dakota's Latest Fracking Problem

Bakken Shale Oil Drillers Are Forced to Burn Off Excess Gas

WATFORD CITY, N.D.—For cattle rancher Vawnita Best, the struggle by North Dakota regulators to keep up with the oil boom strikes close to home: She can see the natural-gas flares of an oil well from her front porch.

"It's been flaring for nearly a year," she said amid the rolling hills of her Elkhorn Creek Ranch. "It's absolutely ridiculous to be so wasteful," she said. "They're flaring gas and using diesel...